|
In
The News
The
information below is extracted from The Edinburgh Academy
News Sheet. Visit the News
pages of the EA website to read the latest issue (just
click on 'Current News Sheet'), browse
back
issues and sign up to receive it by weekly e-mail.
|
In the News - January 2009 |
As the credit crunch takes hold, Academicals in finance are hitting the headlines. Among these is Lord Stevenson (Dennis Stevenson, 50-58), chairman of the Bank of Scotland. As readers will know the Bank has merged with Lloyds TSB, creating what commentators have called a superbank, the Lloyds Banking Group. It was not all bad news for Accies at the start of the year, however. Scotland on Sunday produced a list of nine 'stars for 2009' – the names to watch in the coming months. These included Roger Jenkins (63-73), who the paper described as 'pulling the strings behind the scenes at Barclays'. And finally, Buchan Scott (67-80) was quoted in The Guardian at the end of January defending the private equity industry, which, he says, 'are adding operational value, whether through improving the company or through strategies such as buy and build'.
To cheer us up, several musical Academicals have featured in the news. These include Nick Currie (65-78), who, The Scotsman tells us, has been releasing albums under the name of 'Momus' since 1986. In December, to celebrate the season of goodwill, Momus was posting free downloads of six of his early albums on his website. Just before Christmas, he Scotsman's CD of the week was a jazz album by pianist David Milligan, bassist Tom Lyne and Accie Tom Bancroft (76-85) on drums. Tom provided two pieces - 'Browns' and 'Tackle & Books'. Staying with the arts, the BBC's Diary of Anne Frank, which was screened in January, featured Accie Iain Glen (66-79) in what Scotsman reviewer, Paul Whitelaw, described as a 'perfectly pitched performance'.
The Scotsman has featured several letters by Academicals in December and January, notably Dr Francis Roberts (staff 83-94) on the problems with pupil behaviour in Scottish schools - 'pupils, their parents and, sad to say, the schools' management place the lack of pupil effort squarely on the teacher'. Peter Laidlaw (43-52) contributed on the fortunes made by greedy banking executives - 'the Poulson Principle says that there is no law against making a profit, but surely lawyers could find something to charge them with'. Michael Bennett (74-84) of Osprey Holidays was making it clear that while the Norfolkline Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry service will have a policy of not taking foot passengers, they can be booked through his firm, which has a contract with the ferry company. And finally, Alexander Horsburgh (73-86), Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland, had a word to say on the embryology debate – 'we passionately believe the Church has a responsibility to be engaged in debates on these issues…'.
There is good news for two Scouting Academicals. The December issue of Scottish Scout News reported that Michael Hunter (53-66) and Alan Fyfe (57-69) have been awarded the Chief Scout's Commendation for Good Services and the Award for Merit respectively. Congratulations to both of them.
And we end on a piece in the legal pages of The Scotsman. The commentator wondered how John Beckett (68-78) QC 'used to fare in his maths in his schooldays'. In calculating the reduction in tariff for pleading guilty, John deducted 25% off a six years and four months sentence to arrive at a figure of four years and eight months. I wonder how today's Academy maths classes might fare with that problem, then?
|
Return to the list of 'In The News' articles
|
